


Throw, Burn, Go, Dilemmas

by ScarletEyes



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Deceit and Remy show up sometimes too, Fluff and Humor, Logince - Freeform, Mild Injuries, Prinxiety - Freeform, Relationships are Platonic, Sanders Sides - Freeform, Thomas Sanders References, analogical - Freeform, but I won’t stop you from shipping them, confused sides, i had too much fun thinking of this, logicality - Freeform, moxiety - Freeform, nothing bad happens, royality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-12 03:23:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16865218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletEyes/pseuds/ScarletEyes
Summary: Some weird things are happening in the mindscape. Like some sort of outside force is affecting the sides’ daily lives.Logan hopes to have a break through in the case of the mysterious force.The heat is becoming too much for Roman.Virgil can’t catch a break and just relax for a second.And Patton? Well... he doesn’t really know what to do.Oh and Thomas? He is blissfully unaware of the things happening in his head, until the sides confront him about it.





	1. Logic

It was a regular afternoon for the sides. Virgil was in his room listening to Panic! at the Disco in his room, while reading some random thriller Roman had given him last Christmas. Patton was in the kitchen sneaking some cookies out of the cookie jar, while simultaneously kneading the dough for an apple pie. Roman was in his room singing defying gravity at the top of his lungs, trying his best to belt all the high notes. This last thing annoyed Logan beyond reason. Logan tried to concentrate on reading a book in his room, which was unfortunately located next to Roman’s. 

All sides were able to relax as Thomas was lazily editing some things with Joan. There was no deadline, no awkward conversations. A generally relaxed atmosphere had found his way to the mindscape and the sides were using it to it’s full potential. 

That is until three of them heard the sound of glass shattering followed by a scream and a dull thud. The fourth? Well he was the cause of the shattering glass, the scream and the thud, so he not only heard them, he lived them. 

Roman and Virgil came running out of their rooms looking at each other with wild panic in their eyes. Roman had his katana drawn and almost took Virgil’s face of when he came to stand next to the creative side. 

“What the fuck was that?” Virgil was the first to speak up, confusion clear in his voice. 

“Language!” Patton said in his dad voice, as he walked up the stairs. Well that only left one side unattended for. Logan. So the sounds must have come from him. Well unless Patton had messed up the kitchen, and had managed to remain unharmed, but his confused expression told Roman and Virgil otherwise. “What is going on kiddos?” 

“I honestly have no idea.” Roman said while looking at Logan’s still closed door. “But I feel like teach has something to do with it. Maybe one of his experiments failed and exploded on him?” 

“We should probably see if he’s okay.” Virgil added, wanting to open Logan’s door, but also not wanting to violate Logan’s privacy. 

Patton saw the struggle in his dark son’s eyes and decided to knock on Logan’s door, so Virgil didn’t have to. It remained quiet, as the three sides didn’t get a reaction from Logan. 

Patton used his ‘paternal privilege’ to open Logan’s door without consent and what the three sides found there shocked them.

Logan was nowhere to be seen, but his window seemed to have exploded outwards. Half of the usually obsessively clean room was filled with broken glass and Logan’s desk chair lay on the ground next to the book Logan had been trying to read. 

The three heard a soft groan coming from outside so they carefully made their way to the window. Looking down into their backyard they were even more shocked to find Logan, on top of a bush and surrounded by more broken glass. 

“Logan? Did you jump out off the window?! Why would you do that?!” Patton asked, he was very confused and could only hope that Logan hadn’t broken anything. Not that he was sure if it was even possible for a side to break their bones as he wasn’t even sure if they actually had bones to begin with. Anyway the only answer he got to his question was another groan from Logan, as the logical side tried to get up out of the bush he had landed on.

“Especially without opening the window first.” Roman added in his usual ‘I’m better than you tone’, which earned him a quick response from Virgil.

“Yeah, seems more like a princey thing to do.” Virgil chuckled. He mainly distracted himself, from the possibility that Logan could have gotten hurt pretty badly, by teasing Roman a bit. This earned him a view offended princey noises (tm), until Logan cleared his throat. 

“Okay, which one of you did this? Who defenestrated me?” There was something dangerous in Logan’s voice, but he just looked too funny to be taken seriously, with all the sticks and leaves in his hair.

Virgil was the first to laugh, recognizing the word ‘defenestration’ from Tumblr. The others were just looking dumbfounded at Logan. 

“Done what?” Roman asked, after Virgil’s laughter had died out a bit. Unfortunately this only encouraged Virgil to start laughing again.

“Thrown me through the window!” Logan shouted angrily over Virgil’s laughter.

“Nah dude I was in my room.” Virgil said after he had collected himself.

“Me too, I’m sure you must have heard me.” Roman’s response quickly followed, as he knew that he probably was the main suspect.

“I was downstairs in the kitchen! I swear!” Patton responded after the other two had told Logan where they were

“What you are saying is that none of you were present when I was defenestrated?” Logan asked once more, to clear things up for himself. 

“Maybe it was Deceit?” Virgil shuddered at Roman’s suggestion. Deceit shouldn’t be able to enter a ‘light side’s’ room, without them noticing it. If he was then-

“Yes, it was me! I’m so glad you don’t blame every big inconvenience on me after I didn’t want to show Thomas that sometimes it is bad to lie.” Deceit said from the hallway. He was lured into this part of the mindscape by the sounds of chaos, but had quickly lost his interest. He had already been on his way back to his own room when he heard Roman calling him out and he was just not having it today. He showed the other sides his middle fingers and sunk out.

“Okay, so we can rule him out.” Logan rose up in his room, as he didn’t feel like he could walk up the stairs yet. Getting thrown out of a closed window hurts! 

“Maybe it was Remy? Or one of the personified objects from the short videos?” Patton suggested. He didn’t like to blame people, but it was clear that Logan hadn’t tried to jump through his window by himself..

“My bet is on the Printer! That fucker stole all my purple and pink paints, claiming he needed magenta for something! He’s from the imagination! He shouldn’t need my paint to make magenta!” Virgil added to the list of possible culprits. He was smug about it until he realized that in his anger he had just revealed a part of himself that the others didn’t know about yet.

“You’re correct he should have all the ink he’d ever need in there... Wait!! You paint?!” Roman asked with stars glimmering in his eyes.

“Nah, I like watching paint dry.” Virgil answered dryly. 

“Oh.” Virgil loved seeing Roman’s face fall the enthusiasm being replaced with disappointment and confusion. He loved seeing it, because he liked messing with the prince and he knew that it only took a few words to make him happy again.

“Just messing with ya, Princey. I do actually paint.”

“Can I... can I see it?” Now that was something Virgil hadn’t expect to hear. Sure he had guessed that Roman might have wanted to discuss, or argue, about painting techniques and things like that, and he thought that maybe Roman would be interested in painting something together some day. But Roman wanted to see what he had made! The thought made Virgil a bit uncomfortable, but he knew that he could decide what works he would show Roman, and what works he wouldn’t show him. Not in a million years! 

“Uhm... I guess... I mean... I’m not like good at it or anything and you are creativity... so... uhm... just don’t be too harsh okay? But also don’t lie to me! Just be completely honest with me, without being mean about it!”

“That’s my middle name!” Roman said triumphantly. This conversation was starting to annoy Logan as it didn’t bring them closer to the answer to his question. Who or what had thrown him into the garden without even opening the window first? Logan decided to add to the conversation to make sure that Roman would drop his current topic.

“Roman, that is a ridiculously long middle name, and we all know that your middle name actually is-“ 

“Okay specks we get it!” Roman couldn’t say it fast enough, as he was very embarrassed by his middle name. “Yeez, there is no reason for name calling! Let’s go Doom and Gloom! I want to see what you’ve painted! And I’m sure Calculator Watch can figure this mystery out by himself!” With that said, Roman dragged Virgil out of Logan’s room, as Virgil lazily waved at the other sides before leaving Patton and Logan behind. 

“Are you okay, Lo?” Patton asked, after seeing Logan sway on his legs a little bit.

“I must admit, I am a little sore. I will have a quick rest, before getting to the bottom of this.” 

“Ooh if you’re going to be Sherlock, can I be Watson again?!”

“We’ll see, Patton. Now if you don’t mind, I really just want to lay down for a moment.” Logan groaned, while plucking some of the greenery out of his hair. 

“Oh yeah, sorry! I’m downstairs if you need anything!”

“Thank you, Patton.”


	2. Creativity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mysterious force is back, and this time it is affecting Roman. 
> 
> What could possibly be going on here?!

The next few weeks were uneventful. Nothing special happened and Logan was no closer to figuring out what had thrown him through the window. He had interrogated every possible suspect, but everyone had an alibi. It almost made Logan think that he had somehow defenestrated himself, without his knowledge. He had let Patton interrogate him, but Patton wasn’t really comfortable with it so it ended with hot chocolate and some nature documentary, both had already forgotten the name of. 

Today, Thomas was trying to come up with a video idea for him and Terrence, who was back in town for a few days, and it wasn’t going that well. Still, most of the sides didn’t have to work too hard. 

Logan was already figuring out when Thomas had to edit the video he was going to film today and when it could go up on his second channel. He was working in his room as usual, but as this wasn’t top priority, he had left his door open, so the others were able to drop in if they needed him for something.

Virgil and Patton were playing board games in the living room, which had given Thomas the idea to play online monopoly for a video, but it wouldn’t be fun with just two players. 

This left Roman. Roman, being Thomas’s creativity, had been locked away in his room for a while now. He was trying his best to come up with some creative ideas for a video, but nothing felt right! 

After losing a game of Mikado to Virgil, Patton was about to check up on Roman and suggest that he would take a break, when suddenly the creative side started screaming very un-prince-like, but not like a woman in a horror movie, yet. 

Once again all remaining sides rushed towards the room, where the loud sounds were coming from. Virgil, Patton and Logan were standing in front of Roman’s door. Not really sure what was happening, but faintly smelling smoke from the royal’s room. This time Virgil decided to barge in as his instincts quickly told him that where there’s smoke, there is fire. 

And Virgil was right, there was definitely fire. However strangely enough the room looked completely normal, if not a bit messy, and the only thing burning up was Roman. 

Roman had been trying his best to come up with a video idea, when he had smelled something burning. His first instinct was that Patton had probably left something on the stove again and he would have called down for someone to check, but then he noticed that his left arm was getting uncomfortably hot. And not like hot as in attractive, but hot as in very much on fire! This was the moment Roman had started screaming, followed by some nonsense sentences and a few curses, that sounded something like.

“Ow. Ow.. ouch... no! Bad fire! Stop! What the? Stop spreading! Ow! Bitch stop it! Ugh great now my other arm burns too. Great job Sanders! Ah! No not the hair too! Wtf what is happening?! Ow!” 

His angrily mumbling came to an abrupt stop as Virgil burst into his room with Patton and Logan on his heels. 

“Roman... you... you’re on fire!” Virgil managed to breath out in a panicky voice. 

“No really Emo Obvious? Didn’t notice that yet.” Roman said remarkably calm, before his voice picked up in volume. “Someone put me out please!” Roman yelled, before he started singing. “This prince is on fire! And although that’s a great song, He would very much like to not be on fire anymore!” 

Before Roman could continue his own version of ‘This Girl is on Fire’ by Alicia Keys, Logan had summoned a bucket of water and threw it over the jumping and singing fire hazard. This caused the creative side to burst into his trademarked ‘offended Princey noises’. 

“That was nothing personal Roman, I merely wished to save you from third degree burns and our ears from your unimpressive attempt at singing a song that was popular a couple of years ago.” 

“Apologies not accepted!” Roman gasped, still very much offended, but, luckily for him, no longer on fire

“I never apologized.” Logan shot back. His expression was cold and his back straightened to look a little more intimidating.

“What the hell happened here?!” Virgil shouted to stop the argument before it could even take place. In the meantime Patton had made his way past Virgil, towards Roman, and was inspecting Roman’s skin for burn wounds. 

“I was just working, when suddenly I smelled smoke, so I did what every prince would do, and was about to shout for someone to get the burning item of the stove, when I noticed that I was the burning thing!” 

“That’s odd.” Patton murmured to himself.

“I know that’s odd, I mean I know I look hot, but that doesn’t mean I should turn to flames! If I was in the imagination I would blame the dragon witch, but I am certain she wasn’t in my room.”

“No. I mean yeah how you suddenly ended up being on fire is a burning question, but the odd thing I was talking about was that the fire didn’t do any lasting damage.” 

“What do you mean Patton?” Logan inquired. 

“His skin isn’t burned at all!” 

“Well thank fucking god for that!” Virgil responded, still a little shaken from the fire earlier.

“For once I completely agree with you Emo Nightmare! Just imagine what my fans would think of me if my precious arms and hair were damaged!” 

“Really, you spontaneously catch on fire and all you worry about is your hair?” Virgil huffed.

“Not everyone can worry about life threatening situations all the time, Virge.” 

“Maybe you should for once in your life!”

“Both of you make excellent points.” Logan decided to interrupt. “But let’s try to stay on topic here. Roman if it wasn’t the Dragon Witch, then how come you suddenly caught fire?” 

“I don’t know it just... happened.”

“Like, when Logan was thrown out of the window?” Patton suddenly spoke up.

“Yes, it seems that the mysterious force has once again made it’s presence known. Unfortunately we are no step closer to finding out who or what is the cause of all this.” 

“You make it sound like some kind of ghost is doing all this.” Roman said, not really paying that much attention to the conversation anymore. He was concentrated on the sleeves of his royal attire that had burned away, to reveal his unharmed skin. How was this possible?

“Maybe it is a ghost.” Virgil said, while already thinking of numeral conspiracy theories. 

“Don’t be ridiculous Virgil I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for all this, that doesn’t involve ghosts.” But if he was being honest, ghosts did sound like plausible culprits to Logan by now.

“Yeah, call me when you’ve figured it out. I’m going to my room. This was enough social interaction for me today.” Virgil was already walking through the hallway towards his room when Patton asked him a question, since he didn’t want Virgil to be locked away in his room for the rest of the day. 

“Aww kiddo, will you still come out for dinner later?

“Sure thing, Pat.” Virgil said before disappearing into his room.

“Well, I’d better start making dinner then... let’s hope we’ll figure out what’s going on soon... have YOU figured it out yet?” 

“Who are you asking that question, Padre? We know just as much as you do.” Roman asked confused, while he was trying to fix his previously burning hair in a nearby floor length mirror. 

“Oh you know... I’m just breaking the fourth wall here.” 

“Yes Patton, please start preparations for dinner, before you actually start breaking a wall so you can turn that into a pun!” Logan sighed, as he could already see Patton doing just that.

“Oki doki, see you for dinner!” With that Patton left the room.

“I swear I have no idea what happened!” Roman answered Logan’s question before he could even ask it. “It was just suddenly there and there was nothing I could do to stop it! I didn’t even feel anyone’s presence in my room”

“Welcome to the club.” Logan huffed.

“Do you have any idea who or what could be doing this, Specks?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t like not knowing.”


	3. Anxiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another weird thing happens...
> 
> Maybe the mysterious force is controlled by Aliens!

“A hundred days passed. And Logan and I discovered absolutely nothing about the mysterious force that had yeeted him out of the window and had set my princely locks on fire. And although Logan’s deduction skills are great, we still have a lot to learn before we are ready to blame anyone. But I believe-“

“You’ve spend to much time with Picani!” Virgil said when he moved from his place in the doorway and entered Roman’s room, dragging a very annoyed Remy with him.

“He was a possible suspect!” Roman defended his actions as Remy just yawned in response.

“Is that why I’m here? Gurl, Logan already interrogated me like three weeks ago.” Remy swung up his arms clearly annoyed. Even more annoyed then when Virgil burst into the imagination to drag him out of bed while he was napping. NAPPING! Virgil had disturbed his nap for this?!

“Oh yeah? Well where were you at the time I was ignited in flames?!” Roman huffed at Remy’s theatrics. He was kind of stealing Roman’s thing here. 

“Napping, at a party, getting some Starbucks, take your pick, bitch! But where I certainly know I wasn’t was in your room! For the love of, why would I go in here just to set you on fire?!”

“You know Princey, he’s got a point.” Virgil bud in. He was almost sure that Remy hadn’t done it, but Roman had still convinced him to get the personification of Thomas’s sleep somehow.

“Shut it Jack Smellington!” Virgil stuck out his tongue after Roman’s remark, before looking around the room for his price. 

“Listen, I’m only here because you promised me you’d get me quote unquote ‘super awesome glow in the dark paint that only a prince as genius as you could think of.’ If I helped to get Remy here. He is here. Can I go now?”

“I appreciate you calling me a genius! Here are the paints, now get out of here Virgil! I have a possible enemy to slay!” 

“Gurl, you know I already slay!”

“A genius would have already figured out what happened to you two!” Virgil called over his shoulder before leaving the room. 

“Just wait until weird things start happening to you!” Both sides couldn’t know that Roman’s words were like a prophecy, about to come true. 

“Whatever... and uhm... thanks. You know... for the paint.” Virgil blushed slightly as he made his way down the stairs.

Virgil settled in the common room. He placed a canvas on the coffee table, that he had protected with a tablecloth by Logan’s request, and started to sketch. 

A few more hours passed and Virgil had seen Remy storm away from Roman’s room, followed by Logan entering the room, probably to discuss interrogation techniques, with the helpless Roman. Patton had been sitting in the commons with Virgil, but had left a couple minutes ago to help Thomas indulge in memories of the past so he could finally make that Draw my Life video he had talked about in his ‘Am I Original?’ video. 

The last week had been tense for Thomas, which meant that it had been very busy for Virgil. Today was the first day he was able to relax a little and now that the other sides knew that he painted and he didn’t have to do it in secret anymore, it had actually become his favorite activity for when he needed the wind down a little.

Virgil opened the paints and started filling the canvas with paint in between the lines he had sketched earlier. It didn’t take long before his hands, arms and even a little bit of his face and neck were covered in paint, but luckily most of the paint actually made it to the canvas. 

Virgil put his thumbnail in his mouth while he assessed his work nervously, as he had no idea how to continue from what he had already done. He knew this nervousness was all his own and couldn’t be blamed on Thomas, as he was talking to his mother on the phone and that wasn’t something that normally made Virgil feel anxious. 

Virgil quickly removed his thumbnail from his mouth as he registered that it tasted like paint and probably wasn’t healthy, and definitely tasted really gross. He was about to pick up his brush again when he noticed he couldn’t reach it anymore. That was odd... had he stood up while he was thinking about whether or not he was feeling anxious because he needed to help Thomas? No his legs were still crossed... he wasn’t standing... he was... soaring? Flying? Whatever it was he was no longer touching the ground and he seemed to continue going up. For a second Virgil worried what would happen once he touched the ceiling, but apparently that wasn’t a problem as he phased right through it and into Patton’s room. 

“Hey, Pat.” Virgil greeted Patton nonchalantly. 

“Hello kiddo!” Patton responded looking up from a photo book, with pictures of Thomas and his family. Probably prompted by the phone call from Thomas’s mom. His soft and fatherly expression turned into one of confused and curious horror as he saw Virgil slowly rising up. “What’s up, Virge?”

“I have no idea.” Virgil answered while slowly shaking his head and ignoring the pun. He was making his way closer and closer to the ceiling and if he phased through there he would probably end up on the roof. He only wished that he stopped floating once he had... “I try my best not to think about it too much, as I’m trying to stay calm.” 

“Okay, kiddo. Should I get the others?” Patton’s voice had turned calm and fatherly as to not freak out Virgil any further. Patton knew that when Virgil started to react numb from his own anxiety, the aftermath wouldn’t be really nice. It would be pretty bad actually and would probably end with Virgil’s emotions getting out of control, which in turn might get Thomas into a panic attack, if not handled with immediately. After such an emotional crash it is always better to have all the sides present to calm Virgil down. And they should also come to Patton’s room to find a way to stop Virgil from floating, which is probably the cause of his anxiety in the first place!

“Yes please.” Patton sunk out as soon as Virgil had muttered his answer, but unfortunately for some reason Virgil could go straight (ha (but seriously how many times are we gonna use this in our fics)) through walls and it didn’t take long before he went through the roof. 

Once there he floated a few inches up from the flat roof’s surface, as the mysterious force apparently wanted to make sure that he didn’t get stuck, before he dropped down with a soft thud. 

“Oof” Virgil said out loud and very ironically, before looking around at his surroundings. He should have brought his canvas with him, he thought as he looked at the beautiful sunset outside of the mindscape house. 

He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but for now he accepted his fate and laid down to watch the reds, purples and oranges of the mindscape’s sunset. He was sure he was going to freak out about this sooner or later... probably once he would want to get down, but for now... Thomas was calm, he was sort of calm too in a numb way and the other sides were probably looking for him by now... He hoped. 

As Patton returned to his room with Logan and Roman in tow, he was confused to find that Virgil was no longer there. Logan shot Patton a skeptical look as the reason for Patton’s concern wasn’t there at all. Was this why they were dragged away from their debate, about whether or not aliens could be the cause of the mysterious happenings. A debate Logan was winning by the way, with the argument that even if aliens existed they wouldn’t be able to get to them in the mindscape.

“He was just here a minute ago! He rose up in my room and then when I looked up he was suddenly floating!”

“I knew it was aliens!” Both Logan and Patton looked confused at the royal side after his sudden outburst. “Aliens are behind all the strange things that have happened here lately and now they’ve kidnapped Anxiety!” 

“Roman there are no aliens in the mindscape.” Logan was getting really frustrated with this. They had been discussing this for hours now and he was so close to winning Roman over. So close! “Where are you going?” He asked when Roman suddenly strutted away. 

“To the imagination! Nerd. If the aliens came from there it is most likely that their ufo has returned there after kidnapping Virgil like in one of those cartoons.” As Roman walked away Patton tugged on the sleeve of Logan’s polo shirt.

“Do you really think Virgil was kidnapped by aliens, Logan?” Patton asked in a voice that dripped with so much innocence it might as well have been spoken by a child. 

“Of course not, Patton. There must be a logical explanation for his sudden disappearance. Perhaps he stopped floating and went back to his room as to not bother you any longer.”

“He would never bother me! He’s my son!” 

“No, he really isn’t.” Logan sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose through his glasses. “Look, Patton. I’m sure Virgil is somewhere in the mindscape and seeing as Roman is currently searching for him in the imagination, I propose we both search for him in the house.”

“Aye aye Captain IgLO” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Logan couldn’t help but ask.

“Well you know igLO, Lo as in Logan?”

“Yes I got that, but who exactly is Captain Iglo?”

“The mascot from the Birds Eye products. You know those frozen food things.”

“Was he not called Captain Birdseye?”

“Not in most of Europe he isn’t!” Patton answered impatiently. 

“Why would you-“ (The author of this fic might come from Europe and was pretty proud of that pun until she realized this was a European thing...)

“Sorry Lo, no time for talking now! We have a child to find!” Logan was about to answer that Virgil was in fact just as old as they all were, but Patton had already walked out of his room in search of his dark strange son. 

The sun had completely set when the three sides that had been looking for Virgil regrouped in the commons. They soon came to the conclusion that Virgil was nowhere to be found, which concerned them greatly.

“What if he has ducked out again?” Patton asked softly, afraid to even say it out loud, but they all knew it was a possibility. Especially after Roman hadn’t been able to find any traces of aliens in the imagination. 

“You know I would have asked this sooner, but I’m still kinda mad at you guys for waking me up earlier only to be interrogated like some sort of second degree criminal.” Remy spoke up from the kitchen, holding a Starbucks cup and filling it with iced tea. “Does anyone of you know why there’s like Christmas decoration on the roof or something?”

“Christmas decorations on the roof?” Logan asked. Sure it was December but there was no other logical reason for there to be Christmas decorations on their flat roof, where nobody ever really came.

“Yeah, I saw some different colored lights shine up there earlier when I was in the yard earlier.” As the only response Remy got from the sides were some blank stares he decided it wasn’t worth it and sunk out, after saying “Goodnight bitches!” It wasn’t his problem after all. 

“Great. Now we have two mysteries on our hands.” Logan sighed.

“Patton could you turn of the lights please.” Roman asked seemingly out of nowhere.

“Okay, why?” Patton said as he turned of the lights and suddenly the painting on the living room table started glowing in different colors that could be considered festive and could look like they came from Christmas lights. Suddenly Patton gasped, the same realization dawning on him that had Roman ask him to turn of the lights in the first place, leaving only Logan in the dark about what was going on. 

“Virgil was covered in this paint!” Patton exclaimed enthusiastically. “He must have gone through the ceiling of my room and is now on the roof!” 

The three sides hurried outside where Roman quickly summoned a stepladder, so they could make their way onto the roof. 

There they found Virgil. He had fallen asleep after the stressful events of starting to float and getting stuck on the roof had caught up to him. Normally he would have gone into a panic attack, but the sunset had managed to calm him down and the mindscape’s ever warm weather and the sight of the night sky filled with stars, had slowly lulled him to sleep. 

After the three had been cooing over the peacefully sleeping side for a bit, well mainly Patton and Roman as Logan didn’t coo. Roman, as the strongest of the sides, decided to carefully pick Virgil up and sink out into the emo side’s room so he could lay Virgil in bed. They would talk about what had happened in the morning.


	4. Morality (BONUS: Deceit)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I originally wasn’t going to ad Deceit to the list of sides affected by the mysterious force... but Red gave me a great suggestion in the comments of the last chapter so... here it is.

The next day as Thomas was making decisions over the next Sanders Sides with Joan and Talyn, the sides were once again discussing the weird things that had been happening over the last few weeks. Roman was still convinced it was aliens doing all this. Virgil had thought ghosts were the culprits, until he had suddenly been lifted into the air and now he firmly believed the government was behind all of this, to the great annoyance of Logan, who tried his best to explain to Virgil that the government could not make people float and, more importantly, wasn’t in Thomas’s head! To which Virgil responded that that’s exactly what they wanted you to think. Logan himself believed that the things happening to them must have something to do with Thomas’s behavior and mental state, but wasn’t sure what was triggering it yet. 

And Patton? He didn’t know what to think. All the other sides were making excellent points, and it was normal for him to not shoot any idea down until they knew what the right idea was... but this time it felt different. It felt like he couldn’t make a choice, period. Like he didn’t have a choice but to endlessly debate every possible choice in his head. He wasn’t even sure if he should contribute to the conversation at all. On the one hand having more people talk about it could lead to a quicker answer to their problems, on the other hand, he didn’t really have any idea what was going on in the mindscape. Or did he? Could it be that... no, but... that’s ridiculous... they’re nice puns though... are they?Why was he suddenly faced with so many dilemmas? 

Patton wasn’t the only side staying quiet as somewhere pressed deep into the couch sat an annoyed Deceit. He didn’t want to be there and he had made sure to voice that to the other sides saying things like ‘It’s not like I have anything better to do’ and ‘I’m absolutely delighted to be joining you for what I can only assume will be a very pleasant conversation’. Unfortunately for him Logan, Patton and Roman had insisted that he would be there as the mysterious force seemed to only be affecting sides, and no matter how much they didn’t want him to be, Deceit was one of Thomas’s sides. 

Deceit and Virgil had already hissed at each other 5 times, stuck in a feedback loop of yes’s and no’s, when Logan decided to ask if Patton had any idea, which Patton did, but he also didn’t. Something in his mind told him that he was on the right track here, but his mind was foggy, filled with as much yes’s and no’s as Virgil and Deceit had been throwing at each other in the last fifteen minutes. 

“I... don’t know, maybe... no it’s probably not... never mind!” Patton’s answer had started slow and pensive, but turned to a squeak in the end. It almost looked as if Deceit was influencing him, but he was just sitting almost inside of the couch, not paying too much attention to either Patton or Logan.

“It’s okay, Patton. I am certain your answer can not be worse than aliens-“ Roman scoffed after hearing Logan talk down his idea once more, while Virgil chuckled and poked Roman in his side with his elbow. “Or the government.” Logan finished.

“Hey!” Virgil said, feeling betrayed and getting poked back by a now giggling Roman. Patton had a small smile on his face hearing how Logan actually cared about his thoughts and ideas and seeing his famILY getting along with each other through playful banter. The smile disappeared however, when he had to try and explain the way his mind was racing right now. 

“It’s just... I don’t know if I know a possible answer... does that make sense? I don’t know if it does... I just” Patton had to take a deep breath to calm himself down. “I don’t know! ...I don’t even know if that’s a stupid answer...” 

“Of course it isn’t stupid.” This answer would have calmed Patton down a little, if it didn’t come from Deceit. “You are totally not an annoyingly stupid person, Patton.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire!” Roman burst out. All sides turned their heads to him in confusion. 

“Really Roman? I know you can be a bit over the top sometimes, but I didn’t expect such a childish phrase coming from you.” Roman was about to apologize and say he said it to defend Patton’s honor, but Logan wouldn’t let him as he noticed a different problem. “Are you serious Roman? You sent the phrase to Thomas too?” 

“Wait did I do that?” Roman asked in confusion when the sides looked at Thomas’s memories, only to see Thomas randomly screaming ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire!’ at Joan, when they said that they would never finish this script. 

Thomas would be embarrassed, if only the literal embodiment of his anxiety wasn’t laughing his ass off, just as much as Talyn and Joan were. 

The only side not watching Thomas’s memories was Deceit. Not because he didn’t like watching Thomas mess up, because he did, as long as it meant that Thomas had to lie his way out of it. No he was just in awe and a slight bit of pain, about something that was happening to him at that moment. No Deceit was fine... he was just peachy. His(sssss) legs totally weren’t getting uncomfortably warm and his crotch definitely wasn’t on fire. Nope... nothing was going on... everything was completely normal... hiS FUCKING CROTCH WAS ON FIRE!!!!

The first one to notice was Patton. Who once again didn’t know what to do. On the one hand he should tell the other sides as Deceit was clearly in pain and panicking and there was a fire in their living room. On the other hand, Deceit hadn’t been nice to any of them in the time he had been here and had even disguised himself as Patton once to fool the others and Thomas. He should probably tell the others, though... but they were clearly busy talking to each other... maybe he should summon a bucket of water like Logan had done for Roman... but wait is Deceit cold blooded? Patton wasn’t sure what the sudden temperature change would do to Deceit if he was. 

While Patton had been stuck in his own mind, Virgil had once again been the first to follow the ‘where there’s smoke, there’s fire’ rule, and was able to find Deceit’s pants in flames, through following Patton’s line of sight. He didn’t really care for Deceit’s possible cold bloodedness as he quickly dumped a bucket of water over the half snake side. Who ended up shaking so badly that he was aloud to go back to his room to strengthen up. 

“Patton why didn’t you do anything?! I mean, I don’t like him either, but his legs were on fire!” Virgil breathed out in the remnants of the panic he was feeling earlier. 

Patton explained, with a lot of difficulty, how his brain was functioning at the moment and what he had been thinking, before he fell in yet another web of dilemmas

“Can you stop with your back to back dilemmas!” Logan sighed as he started to get a headache from all the possibilities Patton was slinging at him. Logan’s mind working in a way that tried to categorize all of them in some sort of logical way.

Don’t you mean MORAL DILEMMAS?You get it? Since he is morality and all that jazz.” Roman chuckled, making the joke now Patton couldn’t do it himself.

“Please don’t encourage Patton to start making jokes about the things going on in here.” Logan said while rubbing his temples.

“You mean how when Logan flew out of the window I wanted to say ‘Let’s throw all logic out of the window?’” It was said loud and at a high speed, as Patton wanted to get the thought out before he would overthink it again. But Patton noticed that after saying that his mind seemed to calm down a little. “Oh my goodness I can think normally again!” 

“Yes, Patton something like that, but these events are seriously dangerous and we shouldn’t be making jokes about them. Someone could get injured.” Logan chastised Patton, who was too happy that he could think normally again to really focus on what Logan was saying. 

“I went through the roof...” Virgil almost whispered in realization. 

“What was that mr. Atrocious?” Roman was sitting next to Virgil, but he still didn’t hear what the anxious side said.

“I went through the roof.” Virgil repeated louder this time. 

“Yes, you also went through two ceilings, is this information only now processing for you?” Logan was starting to get at his wit’s end with all of this. 

“No, no listen. I’m Anxiety and I went through the roof. Anxiety going through the roof that’s a saying, right?” 

A collective “ooohhh” could be heard throughout the commons as realization dawned on the four sides still present. 

“Then what happened to me? I was just trying to come up with ideas, when I caught fire...”

“You’re creativity was on fire!” Patton guessed enthusiastically.

Well... actually I was having trouble coming up with a good video idea...” Roman said, suddenly shy as he didn’t like admitting that he CREATIVITY had trouble coming up with ideas. 

“Perhaps you were experiencing a creative burnout?” Logan guessed smugly. It was probably the truth, but Roman didn’t like Logan looking so smug because he was right.

“So if one of us says a saying including one of the others’s functions, what we say will literally happen to them?” A mischievous glint in Roman’s eye, gave away his intentions of probably wanting to throw Logan out of a window again.

“I don’t think so kiddo, we’ve been saying a lot of sayings in the last few minutes and nothing has happened...”

“Then what could be causing them?” 

“Thomas!” Both Virgil and Logan exclaimed at the same time. “He said ‘liar, liar pants on fire’ after you made him” Virgil chuckled at the memory. “and Deceit’s pants went up in flames!” Virgil started the explanation for their sudden epiphany. 

“It is likely that he has also said the other phrases in previous conversations. And as Thomas has been identifying his feelings and ways of thinking with us more regularly since the first Sanders Sides, it is possible that the mindscape made a connection and saw the phrases Thomas uttered as commands, or as tasks to cary out.” Logan continued Virgil’s explanation as the puzzle pieces started to click together. “How did I not make this connection sooner?”

“Guess there’s only one thing we can do about it now.” Roman looked determined at the other sides. Knowing everyone had the same idea now. 

“We should talk to Thomas” Virgil nodded his had in agreement with Roman’s unvoiced plan.

“Yay! Family talk and movie night!” Patton clapped his hands a few times before sinking out into the real world, were Thomas, Joan and Talyn were about to be jumpscared.


End file.
